Pallet shredder chips away at waste disposal costs for distribution firm

A PS1300 pallet shredder has been installed at the firm’s West Midlands headquarters, saving the business over £15,000 in waste collection fees per year.

The growing business began life as a manufacturer in 1954, but now largely imports and distributes a range of heavy duty nuts, bolts, threaded fasteners and other socket products, from its three UK depots. 

Goods come into the industrial facility loaded onto wooden pallets or packed within other shipping crates. With much of this bulky Asian packaging material old or unrepairable, it has no further use in the market and had begun to stack up – proving to be unsightly, occupying valuable space, and adding to fire risk. Waste disposal fees were high given the limited number of pallets that could be housed in a skip prior to collection, and K Engineering also wanted to boost the environmental credentials of its operation.

Now, the distributor is shredding its pallet waste in the purpose-engineered UNTHA PS1300. With the initial goal to reduce the volume of this otherwise bulky material, K Engineering has gone one step further by producing a homogenous 30mm chip, which is now being sold locally for landscaping mulch and recycling. 

Commenting on the installation, K Engineering’s managing director Ian Wilkinson, said: “We are new to shredding, but having read about the PS1300 we were intrigued about what this machine could do. Impressed with how our enquiry was handled and the quality of the manufacturing – something that we know a lot about as an organisation – we moved quickly. 

“The shredder has been excellent – our operators were trained by UNTHA so they have confidence in the safe operation of the machine, and we’ve had no complaints. We’ve removed all the pallet waste that had accumulated on our site and now have an asset that will support our waste handling, long into the future. 

“Importantly, we’re preserving the resource value of the wood, and I’ve even used some of the chip in my own garden!”

K Engineering is currently processing 300kg of pallet waste per day but it can comfortably handle 30 pallets per hour.

Commenting on the popularity of the PS1300 since it was launched, UNTHA UK’s sales manager and pallet shredding specialist Ian Harvey said: “We predicted that this small but mighty machine would make waves when it was launched, and we weren’t wrong. Achieving as much as 4:1 waste volume reduction success for clients, it quickly erodes organisations’ disposal costs, making sites safer and tidier in the process too. That’s the ‘business case’ box ticked. 

“Then there’s the output material of the PS1300, which can be used for landscaping mulch, other recycling routes and biomass. Allowing warehouse, logistics and distribution firms to start shredding with ease – even if they’ve never owned such a machine before – customers can be up and running in no time. That’s why we continually hold these machines in stock at our North Yorkshire test centre.”

K Engineering’s PS1300 has been purchased outright inclusive of a three-year service plan. 

The shredder is available from UNTHA UK via a range of finance packages or to hire inclusive of install and service costs, from as little as £250 per week (terms and conditions apply).